Voorschoolse Muziek Educatie
Early Years Music Education
Movement (2)
Oktober 2014
Trying to stay in and keep my shape resulted in going to a dance class. Once a week I try to synchronise my rusty movements to the music. And very often I can. Actually, the whole class is very capable of doing this although most of us are well beyond 40 and amateurs. Our teacher is a lovely very energetic athletic muscular elegant tireless lady who understands that movement and tempo are very much linked. For every small workout, little or big choreography and in between exercise she has exactly the right music. The flow (we do try to be visually esthetically pleasing and to enjoy this), input of energy, movement possibilities of the limps and the purpose of the exercise, all are accounted for in her choice of tempo. So when I have to lift a leg I am not only supported by the music but helped. The movement becomes easier and my leg feels like a part of my body I can control instead of a heavy unmanageable lump of a limb and as such causing a serious thread to my movement motivation.
Movement in Early Years Music Education could learn from this. Because we very often still present inappropriate tempi to the children. We need to account for energy input, musculair possibilities, purpose of the activity (either teacher guided of free ) in order to establish a firm physical connection with the music for the children to be able to for example synchronise with the music, to feel their bodies and to enjoy the music.
